Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will pick up the Assistant Treasurer's duties now that Senator Arthur Sinodinos has stood down ahead of his appearance at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Mr Cormann has told AM Arthur Sinodinos has not been accused of any wrongdoing and he anticipates his return to the frontbench soon.

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN: Can I just establish a few things which I don't think are in dispute at the outset: Arthur Sinodinos was treasurer and then president of the New South Wales Liberal Party at the same time as he was chair of Australian Water Holdings (AWH). That company made donations to the Liberal Party which Senator Sinodinos says he was unaware of. Those payments have been repaid by the party.

Senator Sinodinos was negotiating a million dollar success fee with a lobbyist, another prominent Liberal, to swing a deal with Sydney Water and if that deal was successful, Senator Sinodinos stood to make up to $20 million. How do you think a person in the street would judge that?

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, firstly Arthur Sinodinos was an office bearer of the Liberal Party and he was the chair of Australian Water Holdings. Beyond that, these are obviously all matters that are currently being canvassed in front of an inquiry in New South Wales, an inquiry with which Arthur Sinodinos is fully cooperating.

And I might just add here, Arthur Sinodinos is not being accused of any wrongdoing. He is cooperating and participating in that inquiry as a witness.

CHRIS UHLMANN: You're right, he's not being accused of any wrongdoing, but we do know how the Coalition has responded in the past to anyone who appears before this particular inquiry. For example, Tony Burke was attacked because he spent one night at a ski lodge owned by Eddie Obeid and Senator Doug Cameron was attacked because he was loyal to Ian Macdonald.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, I mean that's not quite right. I mean Greg Combet, a very senior minister in the Gillard government, appeared as a witness at the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) inquiry and we treated that matter very, very differently.

Again, I mean Arthur Sinodinos is a fine man. He's a man of the highest integrity. He has provided distinguished service to Australia over many decades.

He has done an outstanding job as Assistant Treasurer. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing and he's fully cooperating with the inquiry. Now Labor clearly for obvious political reasons are pursuing a particular strategy, but that doesn't take away the fact that Arthur Sinodinos is a very decent man and we're confident that he'll be vindicated and that he'll return to his position in the ministry.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Isn't it a problem for you though that the Coalition made a meal of every appearance before this commission? Every mention of every name was paraded as a scandal. You've created the weather; now you have to weather the storm.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, I mean let's be very clear. I mean the Labor Party in New South Wales clearly has got a serious series of issues to deal with.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And now so do you.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, that is not right. Arthur Sinodinos is appearing as a witness and he's fully cooperating with this inquiry. I mean this is unlike a whole series of Labor figures in New South Wales who are standing accused and who have been found to have acted corruptly.

CHRIS UHLMANN: How could you be president and treasurer, first treasurer and then president of the New South Wales Liberal Party and be chair of a company, not knowing that money was going from one to the other?

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, the thing to understand about the Liberal Party positions is that these are honorary, voluntary positions and that there is of course a Liberal Party administration which handles the day to day affairs of the party. And look, I'm not sure of all of the ins and outs on how things were managed at the time. Obviously these are the sorts of things that will be assessed during a proper process. But the point here is, it is not unusual for senior office bearers not to be aware of every single transaction that happens at an administrative...

CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, the position on Australian Water Holdings was neither honorary nor, it was certainly not an honorary position - he got $200,000 a year for that.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Sure.

CHRIS UHLMANN: There is a duty of care involved in being chairman of a company.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, and these are the sorts of issues that I'm sure will be canvassed during the inquiry.

CHRIS UHLMANN: It's being said by the Labor Party this morning that you are prejudging the outcome of this inquiry by saying that you believe that Arthur Sinodinos will return.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Look, that's just a bit of hyperbole by Chris Bowen who is keen to sling as much mud as he can. We're not prejudging anything.

But what I would point out again is that Arthur Sinodinos has not been accused of anything. He's appearing as a witness, and unlike various Labor figures in New South Wales, he doesn't stand accused of anything in front of that inquiry.

CHRIS UHLMANN: This damages the Government though, doesn't it?

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, obviously yesterday was a more challenging day for us but we're just completely focused on doing the job that we were elected to do which includes repairing the budget mess that we've inherited from our predecessors.

CHRIS UHLMANN: And some of the mess that we saw in the last government was the mess the Labor Party had to put up with with its own internals, with its party structure and with this Independent Commission Against Corruption. Now that's partly your problem and you've helped to create that, an impression of that.

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, I don't think that's right. Over the last six months we have been a very strong and united team. We've been very purposeful in implementing our election commitments, in following up on the things that we said we would do before the election.

And of course, I mean if you look at the way Arthur Sinodinos very honourably dealt with this situation over the last few days compared to the way people like Craig Thomson and others hang onto their positions, not allowing any investigations to occur independent from Parliament while it was very obvious that they, unlike Arthur, had actually done something wrong.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Alright, on another matter, you've proposed scrapping some financial planning rules, one of which demands that financial planners act in the best interests of their clients. Why would you do that?

MATHIAS CORMANN: Well, that's wrong. We're not proposing to scrap any best interest rules. We are committed to ensure that financial planners have to act in the best interests of their clients. What we said we would do before the election and what we are now implementing is that we think that the operation of the best interests duty can be improved by providing better certainty on how it operates.

And might I just say, what the discussion that we're having is in relation to the statutory best interests duty which any changes to that don't have any implication for the ongoing operation of best interests duty and relevant duties under common law.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Briefly though, financial planners are against this.

MATHIAS CORMANN: That's not right. I was actually the shadow minister for this area in opposition. We consulted widely. This was subject of many inquiries in the Parliament and all three financial planning associations signed up to the policy that we took to the last election.